The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1887-12-28
HIDDEN IN EGYPT.
How Medically Left Those Bonds In
the Land of MummIes.
The Remarkable Adventures Of the
Disgraced Youth.
An Exploring Party Likely to be Sent
from saco to the Orient.
especial to the Press. !

BIDpEFoRD, Dec 28.-The mystery IS at
last solved. The hundred and eighty-ive
thousand dollars worth of registered bonds
are not in the possession of young Frank
McNeally, nor of his brother Harry, nor of
the anxious and perplexed trustees of the
Saco and Biddeford Savings Institution.
They are not in Maine, nor in Canada, nor
anywhere else on the North American con-
tinent. Neither are they in Europe Those
bonds are in Egypt, hidden; and just now
the managers of this Savings Institution
are more interested in them than in all the
other hidden things in that land famed for
hidden antiquities and sins. McNeally hid
the bonds in Cairo; and he thinks no mortal
knows where they are. As American papers
do not circulate extensively along the Nile
the managers of the bank think the chances
are fair for getting the bonds before the
fame of the hidden wealth from the Saco
River is propagated among the impecunious
fellaheen. 1t will thus be seen that the YER
min of Egypt, both great and small, be-
come factor in Maine banking.
The story which explains how McNeally
happened to hide those bonds in so ancient a
country as Egypt shows also that he is not
so ancient or hardened villain as his very
successful flight had made men believe. In
fact he had hardly got out of sight of Saco
before he was homesick and heart-sick. 1t
seems, accordipgito his own story, told in
letters written from Halifax and now made
public. that he took the bonds on the after
noon that he was left alone in the bank to
finish the work ON his books and to close the
bank after his labors were ended. He did it,
he says, ON the impulse of the moment, and
after he had extracted the cash and securi-
ties and closed the mammoth safe
door, he would have given everything in
the world to undo the deed. But it was then
too late for the time lock on the outer safe
door would not admit of the vault being en-
tered before o'clock the following morn
ing. Then all there seemed left for him to
do was to flee. He took the east bound train
at Biddeford, went to Portland and finally to
Quebec. In the latter city, he says, he
walked the streets within the very sight of
the local officers in the hope that they would
recognize him as the Saco defaulter, arrest
him and do that which his lack Of courage
would not allow him to do, namely, take him
back to Saco to be dealt with to the fullest
extent of the law.
But the obtuseness of the Quebec officials,
or their lack of information did him an evil
turn, and from Quebec he took steamer for
Europe. He went to Paris, and from Paris
to Egypt
In Egypt his fortitude entirely forsook
him. Alone, with the burden of a disgraced
name, in strange country of which he un-
dersto0d neither the language nor the cli-
mate, he soon broke down under the worry
in q a nd 20 hot In
havoc with the constitutions of ma
tives of colder climates who do not
understand how to care for them
selves where the suns rays are vertical.
Fearful that something might befall him, he
hid the bonds In Cairo. He thinks he hid
them so that no Egyptian nor anyone else
but himself can find them. 1t was well that
he did so, for ne soon fell into the hands of
Sharpers and the clutches Of the Nile fever.
The sharpers took his ready money and the
fever nearly took his life. He then wrote to
his brother Harry, telling Of his pitiful con-
dition and expressing an earnest wish that
he might live to return the property An
English officer befriended him in his distress
and enabled him to take ship tor Liverpool.
He left Egypt, too sick to find the bonds and
carry them with him. At times he was SO
sick as to be unconscious.
From Liverpool he sailed for Halifax, ar
irving. there almost psnniless. The small
had been given him BY his brother Harry,
who met him. The $500 of cash which he
took from the bank is all gone, and will of
course be a dead loss. The story of the
sQuandering of this money is told in letters
written by the young man from Halifax be-
fore his arrest, and made public today for
the first time. The story is pitiful one.
The boy had no accomplice in the robbery,
and no one whom he ever met while travel
ing knew that he had bonds in his pos
session.
Harry McNeally returned to Saco tonight.
He left his brother across the border. The
bank will probably take immediate steps to
send Frank McNeally back to Egypt with an
attorney or a detective to recover the hidden
treasure.
HALIFAX, Dec. 27,-The evening papers
brought here by Harry McNeally as remark
able writings which give encouragement to
offenders like McNeally, and roundly con-
denim the writers.